Mental Health Behind Family Separation

The Trump administration has consistently fired back at undocumented communities, family separation is at an all time high where mental health needs to be addressed.

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Soon to be former President Trump, has been responsible for thousands of family separations and deportations; it has been engraved in the U.S for many years even before this administration began. Deportations have existed since the Great Depression, where the U.S deported both Mexican and Mexican-Americans to improve the U.S economy and protect American jobs. During the Obama administration, his presidency was responsible for the highest number of deportations that prioritized undocumented people engaging in criminal activity. The current Trump has been responsible for their “zero tolerance policy” abuses accompanying mass criminal prosecutions of immigrants. Currently this administration cannot locate the parents of more than 500 children detained in ICE custody.

Undocumented children have been deemed as criminals under conservative political party and have failed to look at these cases in a humane perspective. During Trump’s final 2020 presidential debate, he claimed that it was the coyotes’ (person who smuggles immigrants in the U.S) fault for family separation rather than holding ICE and the Department of Homeland Security accountable for these cases. DHS spokesman Chase Jennings has a different interpretation, he holds the parents accountable and goes beyond to even state that the parents don’t want to be reunited with their children. The president has repeated multiple times that detention centers have been “taking care” of migrant children. ProPublica Illinois has records of the maltreatment migrant children are facing, going into hunger strikes, bite marks, and even suicidal ideations. There is correspondence by these children that emphasize the daily struggles they face being detained and separated by their families. Migrant children have been suffering in detention centers and have caused them physical and emotional trauma.

Migrant children have been suffering in detention centers and have caused them physical and emotional trauma.

As immigration policies are making it harder for undocumeted communities to find stability, immigrant youth find themselves to be at a constant survival mode. Both U.S and non-U.S born immigrants have a fear of being arrested and facing deportation have resulted in symptoms of anxiety, PTSD and depression based on a study by the MPI. Latinx youth are battling economic instability, discrimination and traumatic experiences that include: assault, death, gang violence and family separation. With these factors in mind, it is important to create that systematic change, to improve school settings by providing them the knowledge to empathize with students from immigrant families. On a government level, an immigration reform should take into effect to be able to provide stability for the working immigrant living and contributing to the American society. As of now, the youth seek schools as their safe haven from the political uncertainty.

Sources: Politico, ProPublica Illinois, MPI